## 1921

## ON WORKING OUT PRACTICAL MEASURES 
## FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF THE FOOD TAX

40313
MEMORANDUM BY A. D. TSYURUPA
February 1921

Comrade Tsyurupa! From your figures it is evident that on February 1 there are 40.3 grain foodstuffs + 5.4 cereals = 45.7. Probably on March 1 there will be about 48. On April 1, probably not less than 50. From April 1 to September 1 is 5 months. 50 : 5 = 10. From this approximate calculation it is evident that for Russia, for the RSFSR (without Ukraine) it is entirely possible to completely abolish the requisition quota from March 15 or from April 1 and until September 1 or until August 15 to test a **new regime**. Your opinion?

40329

FROM A MEMORANDUM BY A. D. TSYURUPA
First Half of March 1921

Comrade Tsyurupa! We shall probably convene our commission this evening (we shall hardly manage it during the day, after the opening, although we shall try).

The crux of the question is the "circulation," free economic circulation for the peasantry. You have not sufficiently grasped this... The whole essence lies in knowing how to set circulation in motion, exchange (and export from the south abroad and exchange with factories). Otherwise—collapse.

**Think about this and find a formula to insert this.**

2) Order immediately the figures: **how much grain we gave in January 1921 and February** (if not for the entire month of February, then for 1/3 or 2/3 of February) 1921. How much was brought in, how much in total.

Lenin

40322
MEMORANDUM TO A. D. TSYURUPA
March 15, 1921

Why do you all remain silent about **in what period** (by October 1? by November 1? etc.) do you wish to require payment of the tax? Is this not the crux of the matter? Perhaps you will say this in your speech?

4364

LETTER TO THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT OF AGRICULTURE
March 1, 1921

I saw Ivan Afanasyevich Chekunov yesterday. It turned out he had already been to see me in 1919 on the question of a congress of laboring peasants. Now he says: it would be better to begin with the regional level.

He sympathizes with the communists, but does not join the party because he goes to church, is a Christian (he rejects, he says, the rituals, but is a believer).

He is improving his farm. He traveled through Nizhny Novgorod and Simbirsk provinces. The peasants, he says, have lost confidence in Soviet power. Can this be corrected by tax, I asked? He thinks it can be. In his own district he has managed, with the help of workers, to replace bad Soviet power with good.

Here is precisely the kind of people we must **with all our might** cling to in order to restore the confidence of the peasant **masses**. This is the **fundamental** political task and moreover one that will not tolerate delay. I earnestly beg: do not be too carried away by the "apparatus-oriented" point of view, do not worry excessively on its account. Pay more attention to the political relationship toward the peasantry.

In my opinion, it is necessary right now to "capture" him, that is, to draw Chekunov into work with us. How is this to be done? One must think about it. Perhaps create immediately (or rather, begin the creation of) a "council of laboring peasantry" or a "council of non-party peasants" (the latter name is perhaps more cautious so as to prevent those whom Chekunov calls the "hissers," that is, the direct kulaks and enemies of Soviet power). Immediately appoint Chekunov—